Steering the ship of a business is can be both exhilarating and challenging. Decisions made can have a profound impact on the entire company and its performance. It’s in this context that personalized business coaching emerges as a powerful tool for business owners to not only navigate the complexities of their roles but to thrive and excel.

I’ll dive into the various advantages and positive outcomes that business coaching brings to owners and founders as a not-so-secret weapon.

What goal would you LOVE to hit for the remainder of the year?

We have 10-11 weeks before the end of December….is there a meaningful target you would like to hit in that time frame OR….get pretty close?

If so, how would hitting that goal impact your business?

What difference would it make to YOU?

How would it make next year different?

You started your business because, and I’m taking an educated guess here, you want to have flexibility, create a lifestyle uniquely yours and make a positive impact through your work. Is that right? or close?

If you’re aspiring to or on your way towards something bigger and you feel there’s more to go and not quite there yet, amidst the strategies and the tactics, I’m inviting you to consider another aspect that will help you increase your success rate to achieve big goals.

Your energy: the mental perspective you’re bringing to your goal achievement.

Are you waiting for things to ‘slow down’ to focus on your goals?

When I was a Relationship Manager selling Professional Services back in the day, I had a number of prospects tell me to call them back when they weren’t as busy. When I did call back, guess what they had to say? It’s still not a good time, I’m still so busy!

Granted, I also understood for some, this was likely a way of deferring a ‘sales’ conversation, but this response also came from many current clients who were in the middle of project with my company. After leaving that role and years later moving into working with my clients, the same message was popping up - that was, in its essence - I have this goal, but I have too much going on to pursue it.

It’s like saying, I want to start running, but I don’t have time to buy the shoes.

Isn’t this the point of prioritization?

If life or the demands of the business are getting in the way of your most important goals, then are you really prioritizing them?

I’m saying this as much for me as for anyone else who sees themselves here.

I too, have said the words - “I just don’t have time to do that thing that I know is going to help me move forward and has been on my goal list for a while.”

This is what I call…

Several years ago my husband and I were asking questions like: Will we have enough to retire? How much is ‘enough’? What do we need? What do we want our future to look like?

We’ve both worked in the financial industry and we have a good understanding and knowledge of personal finance. However, we wanted more than our general understanding and wanted to speak with an expert in retirement planning.

We explored possibilities and chose someone who we love working with and has the expertise we needed.

Once we made that move I felt incredibly relieved. Like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders because we now have a plan built for us.

And, I feel more confident in our ongoing day-to-day financial decisions because I know where we are in relation to where we are going with our ‘plan’. It was a very smart decision for us and I’m so thrilled we made it.

Getting help in the areas you need it is important. We can’t be all the things.

And we don’t know what we don’t know.

You can apply this to a number of areas in life.

One of the most common topics that comes up in my coaching is a desire for better work-life balance/integration.

There are many reasons that someone might be trying to achieve a better balance for themselves and any number of reasons that might be getting in the way.

And, each person’s IDEA of work-life balance/integration is different.

Here’s one common trend I do see:

Our current habits play a role in feeling that out-of-balance feeling.

Being able to recover from setbacks, challenges, and major difficulties not only applies to your personal life but also applies to your work and career as well.

A number of people leave jobs where they’ve experienced high stress, overwhelm, and even workplace trauma. 47% of working Canadians agree that their work is the most stressful part of their day. (Source: Workplace Strategies for Mental Health: Morneau Shepell. (2017). Media Room)

Finding your own ways to recover from setbacks and tough situations can help you move forward and cultivate resilience for future challenges.

And, as a leader, resilience can help you lead and expand into new opportunities. Having personal experience in cultivating your own resiliency can also help you support the people and teams you lead.

Here are some strategies to consider if you’re interested in continuing to build your own resilience:

As you work to grow your business, do you find yourself ever saying, “I’m not sure anyone else can do this,” or “what I do is so unique.”

OR, “I wouldn’t even know how to train somebody on this, I do it differently every time!”?

If you’re interested in scaling your business and growing your results, one of the most frequently raised topics of concern is about consistency and getting the rest of your team members to deliver.

“If I don’t do it, it won’t be the same client experience” or “We won’t achieve the same results.”

Some of these perspectives may be factual and some may not.

Even if it’s factual now, it doesn’t mean that can’t change.

My mission is to support businesses to grow, scale, thrive and experience the possibilities of what a healthy business can create: an impact on the lives that use/experience the product/service, often going beyond only the user, creating a career and stability for employees to learn, grow and provide for their families, freedom and flexibility for the owner, and a financial nest egg.

The unique element that I bring to my work is my calm approach, simplifying complexity, and support in reducing confusion and overwhelm, which can crop up from time to time during growth stages.

I find one of the most effective ways to reduce confusion is by having a plan. Making a decision and creating a plan to make it happen. However, indecision and overwhelm can crop often up when we’re faced with a decision of some kind that we resist making…

People start a business for all types of reasons. Some start looking for more freedom and flexibility or financial freedom. Some start because they have a great idea that they haven’t seen in the marketplace. Some want to create a legacy or make a positive change in their industry. Your reasons could be all, some, or other reasons for starting your business.

But whatever your reason is, this question is relevant to consider:

Do you want to create a valuable business?

What does valuable mean?

Beyond why you started your business, WHY did you start your business?

Let me explain…

Maybe your WHY was to build a business around a dream or passion, to achieve freedom and financial security, or to change lives through your product or service.

That’s great!

Now, that your business is a living breathing entity…what role will it play in your future?

Will it close when you’re ready to move on or will you try to sell it or pass it down?

Building a legacy or a company that will last beyond you is different than running a business for the purpose of providing an income now. Both are great goals, but the way you build and the focus for growth will be different.

If you’ve often wondered how you can get your team working towards goals with the same sense of urgency that you have — you are not alone.

As a leader, meeting deadlines and goals are important, and yet you can’t accomplish this unless you have the whole team on board.

So what do you do when everyone isn’t on board? Or, have the same sense of urgency that you do?

I had a conversation today where someone asked me if I provide ‘Life Coaching’.

It’s an interesting question, because in a way all coaching is life coaching because even though I work with Leaders and Business Owners, we’re not always talking about business and work.

We talk about all the things that might come up that impacts WHO we are and how we show up professionally.

“Where ever you go, there you are” — Jon Kabat-Zinn

We bring our whole selves to work. We typically aren’t one way at work and one way at home…and if we are and it’s a dramatic difference, that can cause a LOT of stress for you in the long-run. If this is you, we need to speak.

I digress.

The question I received today make me think again about how we show up and what we bring with us wherever we go.

If you look back on this year, how do you feel about your business?

Do you feel proud of your efforts weathering the uncertainty of this year? Do you feel frustrated or disappointed? Do you feel gratitude? Or perhaps a combination of all those things….

If you were to look ahead at how you would like to feel about your business in the coming year, what would come to mind? Accomplished, proud, successful, fulfilled……

Of all the things you could do in your business, often overlooked is how we want to be in relationship with the work we do and how the business can serve us and the people it depends on.

Particularly, if you’ve identified that HOW you show up in your business has a big impact on what gets accomplished and how the business does.

There’s so much to say on this topic and how it relates to being successful.

The perspective I’d like to take on this today, with you, is to illuminate how powerful it is when you create focus and simplicity in your work.

There’s a caveat here: Simplicity does NOT equal easy :).

If you’re scrambling in your role or business and not seeming to get the traction you want, an injection of clarity can help.

I help Business Owners and Leaders create a positive social impact through their business by helping them to grow and be sustainable.

Our current reality is the sum of our actions and decisions.

If some of those actions and decisions are not aligned to a single focus or destination then it’s a little like…

I’ve been paying a lot of attention to conversations that highlight the challenges and needs that are surfacing right now. These conversations take place in my client interactions but also with my network and beyond.

What I’ve been seeing is that you are evaluating how you’re moving forward over the next few months. Whether it’s deciding what services or products to offer now or how you will position or sell your services and products.

Businesses are looking at re-opening guidelines and looking to their provincial and state mandates to see what that means for them and how they can continue to operate or re-open (if they’ve been closed through this).

In addition to that, I see you wondering about what this means for your existing services and products and questioning how to get these in front of your clients over the next few months. What’s appropriate as a business? How can I continue to be viable? How can I continue to strive to hit certain business goals?

As a business leader are you currently wondering how to continue to do business moving forward?

Are you wondering if you need to pivot in some way?

Are you trying to figure out how to operate now as you prepare for the long-term?

I’ve heard these questions from a number of business owners right now.

Are these coming up for you too?

If you’re currently asking yourself these questions let’s connect.

For the next 30 days, I have a couple of spaces open right now to support and coach business owners through these types of questions.

If you’ve built a foundation for your business and are you wondering how to continue or if you are considering a shift in your offerings right now, let’s connect.

I want to see you be successful; to come out of this stronger than before

In this time of working from home, with so many distractions and major worldwide issues unfolding AND having others in your home, having a strong morning routine can mean the difference between a great day and an unfocussed one….which can sometimes add up to many unfocussed days.

I wanted to go back to basics here, because this is what we are all facing right now. Our regular routines have been disrupted. Where we work has changed for many. There are others in your space that may not normally be there…..

I will add a disclaimer here as well…sometimes we need time to process, time to adjust, reflect and adapt, with patience, compassion and grace. I am in favour of taking the time to process all the changes and challenges that you’ve been through or are facing. If that means working at slow speed, making space for more family time, I am all for it.

When you are ready…and I know you will be. You’ll be wanting to get some things done. And, feeling like you’re able and capable of getting things accomplished will be a form of carving out your own control in a situation that is very fluid now.

So when you are ready, here are some ideas for you.

Do you listen to podcasts?

I really enjoy podcasts. I love how they can get me thinking about new strategies or different ways to look at things.

One of the topics I enjoy listening to is about productivity. (I know…..but I’m owning it.)

As a business owner, wearing a number of hats can feel overwhelming with all that needs to be done.

I’ve mentioned before that productivity issues can be a symptom of something larger - not keyed into a vision or goals, not focussing on the ‘right’ things, etc.

But at the end of the day sometimes we just need help managing the number of items we have on our plate. So, sometimes a new idea or a strategy is what we need to support our planning and ‘the doing of things’.

If productivity or time management is something that you struggle with or want to learn more about, I thought I would share a list of podcasts that I’ve enjoyed.

I’ve found these podcasts helpful in giving me unique perspectives in how I run my own business, support my clients and apply the concepts to other areas of my life.

Here are 3 to check out:

I deeply admire and am inspired by business owners.

They take a chance….make a leap….to create something from nothing. To take the untravelled path, taking a chance and a risk, no matter how calculated…there’s always some degree of risk.

As the business grows from start-up to an established business, typically people are hired or contracted and the team grows. More people benefit from that business’ existence. Not only the customers buying the product/service and the people who are employed or contracted, but there are the spin-off effects of that.

Somebody’s child gets to play soccer that year. There’s a family vacation. There’s a charity that gets a donation or even a larger donation. A spouse that gets to have the freedom to then choose their own career path. The spin-offs are endless…..as long as that business does well.

We all benefit directly or indirectly from those ‘small’ businesses starting, growing and thriving. (A Small Business is defined as a business with employees 1-99: source Statistics Canada)

Yet, the challenges many of them face are…